Effect of feeding habit,size and season on proximate composition of commercially important fishes from lentic water bodies of indus river at Ghazi Ghat,Pakistan

The present study was undertaken to analyze the effect of feeding habit,size and season on body composition of six commercially important wild fishes. the fishes were captured in summer and winter months. the water,ash,lipid and fat contents (%) were determined. one way anova was used to analyze statistical significance of data. the water,ash,lipid and fat contents (%) were significantly different (p<0.05) between fish groups of different feeding habits. at species level,% water contents (77.64±1.96) and % ash contents (3.24±0.40) of wallago attu (carnivore),% ash contents (4.19±0.82) of aorichthyes aor (carnivore),% lipids contents (9.95±3.11) and % protein contents (17.20±2.09) of barbodes sarana (omnivore) were significantly different (p<0.05) from other species. there was no significant difference between various size groups for body composition parameters of most of fish species except for % water (73.23±2.17,77.76±1.13),% ash (3.88±0.90,5.64±2.63) and % lipid contents (3.86±0.65,6.88±1.28) of labeo rohita; and % water (71.67±2.95,74.3±3.01),% ash (5.73±0.92,5.77±0.92),% lipid (5.13±1.29,6.34±2.09) and % protein contents (14.81±1.60,16.18±1.29) of oreochromis mossambicus. the season related significant effect (p<0.05) was demonstrated for % water contents of barbodes sarana (66.16±1.15 in summer,68.27±1.30 in winter); % lipid contents of barbodes sarana (14.18±2.63 in summer,8.94±1.32 in winter) and labeo rohita (6.45±1.66 in summer,4.69±1.55 in winter); and % protein contents of barbodes sarana (15.03±2.40 in summer,18.20±1.23 in winter),aorichthyes aor (15.81±0.61 in summer,14.16±2.02 in winter),wallago attu (16.62±1.34 in summer,14.53±1.92 in winter) and labeo rohita (13.19±1.55 in summer,14.87±1.83 in winter). in conclusion,several significant species specific effects in body composition parameters related with feeding habit,size and seasons were demonstrated.